Professional Involvement

Cotton & Company partners stay ahead of the competition: they are active in professional organizations (many serve as committee officers or chairs), and they keep ahead of industry trends and practices. Continuing experience on the assignment “firing line” fosters not only a closer understanding of changing client needs but also the in-depth development of mutually supporting practice specialties among the partners.

Professional Memberships

Several Cotton & Company partners have experience working with standard setting boards either in the capacity of a board member, an expert witness, or as a member. Our partners and professionals are members of professional organizations, including AICPA, AGA, VSCPA, IAA, ISACA, and ACFE. Several partners have been board members for some of these organizations, as well.

Cotton & Company’s Chairman, David Cotton, is the past chairman of the AICPA Federal Accounting and Auditing Subcommittee and has served on the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee, as well as the Government Technical Standards Subcommittee of the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee.

Mr. Cotton served on the board of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA) and on the VSCPA Litigation Services Committee, Professional Ethics Committee, Quality Review Committee, and Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee. He is a member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs (GWSCPA) and is serving on the GWSCPA Professional Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) and is past advisory board chairman and past-president of the AGA Northern Virginia Chapter. He is also a member of IIA and the ACFE.

Mr. Alan Rosenthal, Partner, has actively served the accounting and auditing community during his career. He served appointments on a number of committees and taskforces for both the AICPA and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA), including the AICPA’s Auditing Standards Board (3 years), the AICPA’s Professional Ethics Technical Standards Subcommittee (6 years), a joint OMB-AICPA taskforce on the quality of federal financial assistance audits, and the MACPA’s Peer Review Committee, Auditing Standards Committee, and Not-for-Profit Organization Committee.

Ms. Meredith Shears, Partner, currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the DC Chapter of the IIA, and is a member of the AGA’s Corporate Partner Accounting and Auditing Committee.